Gee... Airlines Don't Like User Fees, Either!
In an effort to cut their costs, several European airlines are
opting for longer routes over the Atlantic to cut down on air
traffic control fees, according to the BBC.
The report says the airlines Thomas Cook and Monarch regularly
take longer routes to avoid higher fees on flights to the Canary
Islands.
A route known as the "tango route" -- which adds 100 miles to
the Canary Island route --can produce an extra three tons of carbon
dioxide. The airlines say they use the routes to avoid air traffic
congestion and maintain schedules.
In a month long investigation, the BBC monitored 44 Thomas Cook
flights from Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham flying
to-and-from the Canary Islands.
Flying over French, Spanish and Portugal airspace costs
$3,256.67 USD.
Tango route expenses come to $1997 -- which, allowing for the
extra fuel costs, means the airlines saves $204 per flight.
"There are parts of Europe which are cheaper to fly over than
other parts," said one unidentified airline pilot. "So you can
lengthen a flight by maybe fifteen minutes or more to avoid
expensive bits of airspace.
"To get into the tango routes you have to fly out over Ireland,"
the pilot added.
A former airline operations director, shown 44 flight plans,
determined avoiding fees is the only operational reason to fly the
longer routes.
"The overall trend is that there is a high proportion of flights
taking ocean routes when there was no clear wind advantage to do
so," the unidentified director said. "I would hazard a guess that
over flight charges may have been factored into these routings,
owing to the disproportionately higher cost of the direct routing.
I can understand why this might be done.
"The tango routes are quieter, and are less likely to suffer
slot restrictions. Airlines may be able to benefit from more
punctual schedules. Schedule punctuality is really important for
the charters."
Andy Farrar, a navigations expert, calculated a trip and the
fuel usage on the tango route from Manchester to Tenerife and
compared it with an imaginary direct flight.
"The flight which flew over the ocean used 14.7 tons of fuel and
took four hours 17 minutes," said Farrar of Air Data, based in
Gatwick. "The direct route would have used 13.1 tons and have been
shorter at three hours 57 minutes."
Climate expert at the University of Sussex, Mari Martiskainen,
said the extra fuel would produce three additional tons of CO2 per
flight.
"That's equal to the amount of CO2 emitted by 150 car journeys
between London and Brighton," she said.
And that, in turn, appears to indicate the actions of some
airlines may run counter to their published environmental
policies.
"Thomas Cook Airlines can confirm that it does operate routes to
the Canary Islands, which include using tango routes, said the
German-owned company. "These routes are used when they are the most
efficient and when it is necessary to avoid lengthy air traffic
control delays caused by airspace congestion in European airspace,"
said a company spokesperson.
"On the Thomas Cook Airlines flights that used tango routes
between the 2nd and 16th November 2007, fuel was saved on more than
75 per cent of these flights."
Monarch, a Luton-based airline
admits using the tango routes to avoid paying over flight charges,
and to maintain schedules.
"By traveling via these Oceanic routes, the company avoids
paying French and/or Spanish over flight charges and instead pays a
much smaller Oceanic airspace over flight charge to the UK and
Ireland," said a Monarch spokesperson.
"However, this over flight cost saving has to be balanced
against the additional mileage which increases both the flight time
and fuel-related costs.
"In a highly competitive marketplace, where customers demand
increasingly low fares, we have to manage our costs as tightly as
possible.
"Ultimately the environmental impact comes down to whether the
traveling public is prepared to pay," the spokesperson said.